Mexico's CFE says "No" to power auctions - report

March 14 (Renewables Now) - Mexico will no longer hold auctions to purchase electricity, Manuel Bartlett, the director general of the country’s state-owned utility CFE, said in a televised interview on Monday, according to the Mexican media.

“Why should we buy electricity when we can produce it ourselves? We are not going to discuss this, the CFE is not a company that buys electricity. It is a company that produces and distributes electricity. Why should anyone force us to buy electricity?”, Bartlett said, per a report by El Financiero.

Asked whether the CFE would require the support of third parties, Bartlett’s answer was a resounding “no”. He said that the CFE had been given resources by the country’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and it would continue to grow.

As he celebrated the first 100 days of his administration on Monday, Lopez Obrador again backed the state-owned oil company Pemex and the CFE as the leading energy suppliers. He claimed that the energy reform, which enabled the long-term auctions, legalised the pillage of the oil and electricity industry, according to a news report by El Economista.

In the other corner of Mexico’s current energy policy stands Guillermo Garcia Alcocer, the president of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) and a vocal supporter of electricity auctions. As the head of the body that was in charge of the fourth auction, Garcia Alcocer has often been tweeting about the advantages that these procurements can bring to consumers and the environment.